


At the Smithsonian

by Gypsymoon77



Category: Welcome to Night Vale
Genre: Drabble, Pre-Series
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-02
Updated: 2014-08-02
Packaged: 2018-02-11 09:43:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,121
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2063364
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gypsymoon77/pseuds/Gypsymoon77
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Carlos has a brief encounter with a member of a rather odd Boy Scout troop while on his Senior trip.</p>
            </blockquote>





	At the Smithsonian

Carlos knew it was rude to stare. Really, he needed to stop. After all, he hadn't spent months looking forward to this senior trip to DC and the included visit to the Smithsonian just so he could gawk at other people. He turned his attention back to the exhibit in front of him, only to find himself sneaking glances out of the corner of his eye.

Several yards away at a nearby exhibit stood a Boy Scout troop. Not that that was odd in and of itself. It was the two boys standing at the front of the group. They looked to be no more than fifteen at the oldest. The taller boy had ginger hair and strangely bright blue eyes. His friend was even odder with white-blonde hair and violet eyes. But it wasn't their unusual appearance that kept drawing Carlos' attention.

They were holding hands.

Not that it bothered Carlos. Obviously, it didn't bother _him_. Not that he was necessarily out. He came from a conservative family that lived in a conservative neighborhood where he attended an elite but conservative school. He would never dream of holding another guy's hand in public.

The weirder part was that the rest of the troop didn't seem at all alarmed. The Scoutmaster wasn't giving them furtive looks or reprimanding them. There were no snickers among the other boys gathered around the exhibit. The pair wasn't being ostracized or marginalized in the least.

The violet-eyed boy seemed to sense Carlos' gaze and glanced over at him. He smiled at the older teen, a wide, brilliant, infectious grin. Carlos felt a wave of heat sweep up his neck and into his cheeks.

_Busted._

He hurriedly turned away, pretending to be interested in the exhibit he had been standing in front of for the past five minutes or so. He stuffed his hands into his jeans pockets and tried to appear casual. When he dared to glance over again he found that the violet-eyed teen was standing next to him.

“Hi!” the boy greeted, his voice unusually high pitched.

“Oh, um, hi,” murmured Carlos in reply as he glanced around desperately looking for an escape.

“I was just telling Earl that it looked like something was bothering you,” the kid replied, jerking his thumb in the direction of the ginger-haired boy who was still with the rest of the Scout troop. “Are you okay? Are you lost?”

Carlos couldn't help the guffaw that bubbled out past his lips. Here he was eighteen and about to graduate from high school in a few short months and a kid that was maybe a sophomore at the most was worried that he had become _lost._ He ran a hand through his tangle of unruly curls and smiled at the younger teen.

“No, I'm not lost,” he said, his mouth tilting up in a lopsided smile.

The boy grinned back, the faintest of blushes tinging his cheeks. “Okay, good! You just kept looking over at us like you wanted to talk to us or something, and it _is_ a Boy Scout's duty to come to the aid of those in need.”

Carlos let out a nervous giggle. “Uh, yeah, sorry about that. Um....you and your boyfriend are cute is all....”

“Boyfriend?” the teen asked, his nose wrinkling up in confusion. He glanced back over at the boy named Earl who was now watching them with some interest. Apparently the other boy felt it was way past time for his friend to stop talking to the older teen and rejoin the group.

“Earl isn't my boyfriend....” The kid tilted his head to the side as if trying to figure out a way to explain what exactly the other boy was to him. After a moment, he gave up and shrugged. “We kind of keep missing each other when it comes to that, you know....I like him, but he's into someone else and vice versa?”

Carlos felt his face heat up again as he realized he was actually talking to another gay teenager about his love life in the middle of the Smithsonian of all places. “Oh, it's just that you were holding hands...”

“Of course we were! He's my best friend!” replied the kid, that beaming smile of his lighting up his face again.

“But...but no one was bugging you about it!” responded Carlos, his eyes widening slightly. He turned back to the Scout troop and studied the group. “I mean, when I told Mike, he didn't talk to me for over a week. He said he needed time to adjust and all.....”

“Time to adjust to what?”

“You know...” Carlos whispered, looking over his shoulder to make sure none of his classmates were nearby. “To the fact that I'm....gay....”

His stomach did a funny lurch as he muttered those words. It had taken almost all of his courage to tell his extremely small circle of friends (well, really, it was just Mike and Stacy, his fellow Science Club members). He hadn't even talked to his parents about it and now he was telling a complete stranger in the middle of a very public museum what was his deepest, darkest secret.

The boy made a scoffing noise. “What's there to adjust to?” he asked, looking at Carlos as if he had suddenly sprouted a second head...or five. “Who cares if the person you like is a boy or a girl or corporeal or non-corporeal or real or imaginary?”

_Wait, what did he just say?_ Carlos blinked rapidly, trying to wrap his head around what the boy was saying, but the younger teen was going on, making a dismissive gesture with his hand.

“So, really, wherever you find love, it's worth holding on to...no matter what dark alley it was cowering in....”

“Um..yeah,” mumbled Carlos, starting to wonder if maybe this kid had been teasing him all along. Or was just insane.

“Palmer!” The Scoutmaster was waving to the younger boy, motioning for him to rejoin the group as they were moving on.

“Be right there!” he yelled back, and turned to Carlos one last time. “Well, it was really nice to talk to you.” Another blush tinted his cheeks, darker this time. “So...um...bye!”

With those words, the violet-eyed boy turned and jogged to catch up with his troop. He glanced back and waved shyly one last time and then turned and began talking excitedly with his friend. As they walked off, Carlos caught a glimpse of the print on the back of the Scoutmaster's t-shirt: _Night Vale Boy Scout Troop 666_.

“Night Vale, huh?” he murmured to himself as he wandered off to find his classmates. “Must be an interesting place....”

 

**Author's Note:**

> My first WTNV fanfic. Really just a drabble and not my best at that. But I had the beginning of the scene in my head and wanted to write the rest of it out. So, yeah. Hope you enjoyed and if not, that you at least don't feel like you wasted your time.


End file.
